Black Phoenix
by As Darkness Takes Over
Summary: A hollow! Shit! I'm going to die! I started to run. It made a grab for my legs
1. Chapter 1

I sipped my coke as Mrs. Barker stepped inside and closed the door behind her. How unusual, usually she waited a few minutes for people that were late. "Class," Mrs. Barker stated from the desk, a proud grin on her face, "we have two new classmates; please welcome Toshiro Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto." I almost choked on the soda. That can't be right! It's impossible! Utterly impossible! Hitsugaya Toshiro and Matsumoto Rangiku was common name right? Well, maybe not common, but still! Inn walked a small my hight white hair and teal eyes student, and a much taller, strawberry blond hair blue eyed student. I swallowed thickly and my head fell down on the keyboard. This couldn't get much worse.

"Since Elpis Pax -"

"It's Pax," I interrupted rudely. Mrs. Barker threw me a nasty glare, but didn't say anything.

"seems so willingly, she'll be their guide for the week until they familiarize themselves with the school." I choked again and hit myself over the breast to release the pressure. "Please go sit beside Elpis Pax Blake, raise your hand." Reluctantly, I raised my hand. They took a seat on each side of me, and I banged my head against the wood again.

"You have a nice name," Rangiku told her, leaning close, why don't you like it?"

"It's not that I don't like it," I replied with a shrug, "Elpis means Hope in Ancient Greek it was the last spirit to leave the Pandora's box. Pax means peace in Roman Mythology she was the goddess of peace. Both my parents are "students" of Greek and Roman and they wanted my name to mean something so they named me "hope of peace"." I told her.

"Fascinating," Toshiro replied, I scowled at him. He was such a brat. How could I have ever have liked him?

"I wasn't talking to you."

I sighed and started to game. Changing game every five minutes or so, duly out of boredom. The teacher droned on and no one – not even the transfer – were paying her much attention. They both had their own computers and were doing their own stuff on it. I yawned and drank some more coke. I was fucking out of games to play. The bell rang, ah lucky!

"Since I'm basically your slave for the next week, give me your time tables," I ordered dramatically. Toshiro rolled his eyes at me and Rangiku laughed cheerfully. Both did as I said.

I looked them over, oh, this was just dandy. "Looks like you lot will be stalking me until you figure out where everything is." I looked up at Toshiro, he looked back unimpressed. "Of course you could always just go around without me, see if I care."  
With that I turned around and walked away, the two of them quickly caught up to me. I rolled my eyes at him, and looped arms with Rangiku, she was nice. She laughed and allowed it.

"How do you like the country so far?" I asked her, ignoring Toshiro completely behind us. "Can it compare to your home?" I joked.

"It's nice," Rangiku replied with a laugh of her own. "But nothing like home."

"What's Japan like?" I interrogated her. "Is it anything like here? I've heard there's loads of earthquakes there. Is that true? Are the building like here? Or are they old fashioned."

She laughed, she did that a lot. "You ask a lot of questions."

"You don't mind, do you?" I questioned with a laugh of my own. "I'm rather fond of Japanese. It's a long story, I've been fan of it since I was twelve or thirteen that's when I got addicted to Japanese songs."

We entered history, I took a seat in the back, Toshiro followed us silently as a shadow and sat beside me, with Matsumoto on the other side.

"BP," Jean greeted me, and she took a seat in front of us.

"BF," I greeted and we clasped hands and pumped fists.

"BP? BF?" Rangiku said confused.

"Oh, right, sorry guys." I apologized quickly. "This is Jane, better known as Black Fire. That's her skype name. I'm Black Phoenix. She's known for the jams she makes."

"Jam?"

"Oh, yeah," I replied, hitting my fist to my palm, a half smile stretched across my face. "you wouldn't know. Not like jams jams, but a remix of songs."

"She's just weird like that," Jane informed them. Her electric blue eyes staring at Toshiro with a small flirtatious smile.

"It's true, though!" I shouted offended at her, pointing a finger at her. "It's like you take all these jams and you jam 'em together to make a fantastic jam." I laughed merrily. "That's a lot of jams." Jane leaned over and whacked me lightly on the arm, a smile scratched on her face. "Hey!" I shouted, ignited at her. I laughed merrily at them.

"Silence!" The teacher demanded and my lips locked together with a smile. Jane turned back around,

"I only have one book," I whispered to Toshiro.

"Give it to Matsumoto," he growled just as quietly. I nodded and slid my copy of the book to Matsumoto, she thanked me just as silently.

I logged into skype, Jane was already on. I noticed I had two new friend requests. One from Ice_Dragon and one from Ash_Cat. I looked down, blood red hair falling into my eyes as I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

"Are you all right, Ms. Blake?"

"Toppers," I replied cheerfully. "Just the bit of I-need-to-look-down syndrome." He nodded oddly and I gave him a wide grin. I stared at the screen, my fingers clenching and stretching as I itched to write. I couldn't exactly say: 'that's some ironic names, don't you think?'

Instead I wrote funny names, that to both of them.

Toshiro replied with You're the one to talk.

Rangiku only gave off haha and a big smile.

I gave her a big smile back and to Toshiro I gave off , hoping he would get it... Eventually.

"Don't let you be fooled by her cheerfulness," I heard Jane say. I walked through the gym hall, a wide smile plastered on my face. "She wasn't always like that. She's had a rough few years."

"What'd you mean?" Rangiku asked.

"Well, believe it or not," she replied, "she used to be a lot like Toshiro if not worse off."

I jogged over to them before she could say anything more. "Well, what does it matter now?" I replied and plopped down beside Toshiro to my demise. "It's over and done with. That chapter of my life is over." Rangiku nodded, Toshiro didn't even seem to have been listening at all, sitting there on pushing away on his phone.

"How do you two know each other?"

"Pax joined our class a few years ago when it was discovered how smart she actually was. I mean, it's insane how smart she is. She couldn't be held back in her own year so she had to take the one of ours." Jane explained, ruffling my hair. I stared ignited at her and pulled my hair in a bun.

_**Peep peep peep!**_Toshiro took out his phone and glanced at it. "Matsumoto," he said. She nodded and they both uncapped something strange before popping a green pill into their mouth. I stared wide eyed at them as they got ejected from their body appearing with black shihakusho and Toshiro had a white haori on him. Oh, this it! This is definitively a case of fantasy merging with reality! Or did it mean that the writer of Bleach was a seer? Ah! Such a headache!

I followed after them. A hollow! Shit! I'm going to die! I started to run. It made a grab for my legs, I jumped over it. And pushed on, my body taking on a speed I didn't know I had. I looked at the building. That's not possible! I was fucking flash stepping! Shit! I hit the ground with a loud smack, I went to get up, a tentacle wrapped around my throat. I screamed loudly. It fucking hurt. Another wrapped around my waist and held tightly. I screamed louder. Something was burning through my skin and cloths. I trashed in it's grip. A blur shot up between it's eyes and cut through the human mask. The octopus kinda turned to black dust and left a black butterfly in it's place. I'm falling. Strong hands captured me mid air, white hair entered my vision. I blinked sleepily at him.

"Toshiro."

_Hills of black fire licked around me, a burning heat but not burning me. The sky was crimson red with a black sun. I stared up at it in a trance._

"_Elpis Pax..." A voice said far away. I turned around, trying to locate the voice._

"_Where are you?" I shouted back._

"_You cannot see me!" The voice shouted, even further away._


	2. Questions and Answers

I woke up, feeling refreshed. I sat up and had a look around; I was in a living room, sitting in a yellow couch with white walls. I could see the kitchen from where I was seated and the hallway. It had a staircase in it. Along with two separated rooms. I was in an overly large pyjamas top, I noticed. Kinda slow of me, but yeah... I noticed Toshiro sitting in a light brown chair, his head resting against his chest. Rangiku walked in, she stopped and looked at me and squealed loudly and went to hug me. Toshiro woke with a startle and looked around in slight confusion when he saw Rangiku.

"I'm so glad you're awake," she shouted in my ear.

"Ow," I whispered, "sore."

"Matsumoto!" He growled lowly. I froze up beside the young captain. That was not a tone, I did not like at all. I hope I never heard it again, in fact.

"Gomen, gomen, taichou," Rangiku chuckled. "I didn't mean to wake you, or hurt you."

"Captain?" I said puzzled. Oh, shit! I'm not supposed to know Japanese or understand them. Em... How to remedy the situation? "Why are you calling Toshiro captain?" I faked ignorance over not puzzling together the pieces.

"We're not exactly human," Rangiku stated.

"Yes, I've figured amazingly enough," I replied sarcastically. "How about this; I ask questions, you answer, sounds good?" They nodded. "Okay, what are you?"  
"Shinigami," Toshiro replied shortly.

"Soul Reaper or death god," I replied, "got it. What does it mean to be a soul reaper?"

"We protect the souls of those past on, and we purify hollows." Rangiku answered.

"What's a hollow?"

"A soul that does not cross over and have turned negative."

"And a plus soul would be the regular ghost?" I asked. They nodded. Simple enough.

"I get the pills so I won't be asking about them," I mused out loud. "Why haven't my mother gone ballistic over my disappearance?"

"We tricked their memories into believing there was an accident at the lab in chemistry class and therefore you're at the ER not able to receive visitors. You'll return once we're done here."

"And the scars?" I gestured to the side of my neck that had a scar on. (I could see it from the mirror on the wall.)

"Your family – along with the school will think that those scars have always been there and won't question it."

"How do you do that?"

"An object that is produced in Soul Society." Rangiku replied compliantly.

"Soul Society is the after life?" I questioned. They nodded. "All right, I'm done."

Toshiro's eyes lit up. I eyed him warily. "How can you use flash step?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied with an empty look.

"It's a movement technique. It allows a person to move faster than what the aye can see. Something which you clearly did," Toshiro told her suspiciously.

"Right, well, I dunno about that."

Rangiku laughed and I smiled thinly at her. "I'm going to make dinner." She left for the kitchen. Pots and pans clanked together loudly, interrupting the silence between Toshiro and I.

"So," I begun awkwardly, "how come you didn't come after the hollow before it took me?"

"There were three others there.," he replied. "You're lucky you're alive."

"Well apparently it wasn't as much luck as it was the ability to use flash step," I replied with a small smile. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "A little too soon?" He grunted. I twiddled my thumbs while waiting for dinner. How would mum react to my wounds? Would she flinch in sorrow? Or maybe pity me for the wounds? What if I choose to wear something over it, how would she react?

"How does that memory thing work?" I asked, eyebrows furrowed. "I mean, how will people see me? What if I decided to hide the wounds, would that be out of character? Will they notice at all?"

Toshiro looked at me startled that I asked him something like that. "Do as you wish, they'll take it as normal and the blanks will be filled in."

I nodded and we lapsed into a silence that was only broking by Rangiku when something didn't go quite her way. The dream was confusing, it reminded me a bit off how a soul reaper got a zanpakutō. Oh, fuck! That's it! I knew there was something I had forgotten. Silly, fucking me!

"Do all soul reapers have swords like you do?"

"Yeah," Toshiro replied, a startled expression on his face. I nodded, I would interrogate him more thoroughly if I noticed more about them or if that dream turned out to be more than just a dream. Or if they mentioned a zanpakutō something they so far hadn't. That I'm pretty sure off. Ah, pretending to not know something I do know is hard and annoying. Should I tell him about the dream or not? Maybe if it continues or changes.

"Dinner!" Rangiku shouted from the top of her lunges. We both sat down by the dinner table, Rangiku had already placed dinner on the table. A cobble of corn, pork and coleslaw.

"American much?" I questioned before starting to dig in. Saving the corn for last. I noticed that Toshiro wasn't eating the corn eyeing it disdain.

"What's wrong Toshiro?" I asked in a mocking baby tone. His eyebrow twitched. Mission completed. "If you don't eat your vegetables you won't grow big and strong."

He took a shuddering breath through his nose. Rage filled eyes met mine. Oh, shit. "Blake, you're dead." I got up from where sat and started to run quickly as I could. I started run around in the house like a mad man, trying to escape Toshiro. The rooms passing by me in a rush. Toshiro suddenly appeared in front of me. I stopped and keeled over, breathing hard.

"W-what?" I rasped out.

"You just flash stepped," Rangiku informed, clearly shocked.

"Oh." I stared dumbfounded at her. "What now?" I asked. Toshiro sighed and rubbed his forehead tiredly. He looked old. For some reason I wanted to hug him.

"Now you go home," he replied. I nodded and got in the car with them.

I got in the car with them, and we drove in silence broken only by the radio. I got home safely and defused Rangiku from going with me. I waved goodbye from the door and closed the door behind me. I went up to my room and almost fell down. Sitting on my bed was Toshiro in soul form.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned him softly.

"It was decided that I would keep an aye on you," he stated.

"Why?"

He sighed. "You have high levels of uncontrolled reiatsu."

"What's that?"  
"Spiritual pressure is the physical pressure of Reiryoku when released."

"What's reiryoku?"

"It's a power aligned with spiritual sensitivity and willpower." I nodded thoughtfully. Well that made sense.

I went to bed around ten, asking Toshiro to close his eyes while I changed quickly. Blushing as I watched him. A naughty image and ten popped up in my head before I could stop it, but I destroyed them before they could take hold.


	3. Finding bleach

_I was back there again, the black flames licking up my body. Burning hot, but never scorching me. I noticed that I was wearing a red kimono with black flames running up the sleeves and hems and a black obi. My hair was done elegantly in a traditional _

"_Elpis Pax," it was getting clearer. I looked around, trying to find the source, I looked up. The sun wasn't there but instead was a black bird flying over my head._

I woke up with a start, the room around me was burned badly, black flames licking up the wood. I gaped, I had better tell Toshiro or Rangiku, whichever one I found sooner. The door banged open and my mother's head poked through the door.

"Honey-" She started before cutting herself off again.

"Mum," I stared panicky, "I didn't do this."

"It's started again," she sighed.

"What?"

"Honey, you probably don't remember this" she started, "but when you were a kid, when you got angry, especially, black fire would appear, and if you had a nightmare your room would be blackened. Though, it's never been like this before."

Oh, yeah, when she said it, I did remember faintly. I recalled that I would sit and play with fire all on my own. I never had friends as a kid, because of that. They were too afraid of the flames to approach me.

"Why did it stop?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," she scratched her head thoughtfully, "at some point it just stopped. Right before you started school as well. It's quite odd."

I nodded and peered into my closet, oh, thank goodness, my cloths are fine. It's only the outside that's hot. My mother stepped into the room beside me, her hand hovering over the closet door.

"Don't you feel that, dear?" She asked. I shook my head. "It's burning hot. She took my hand and looked at it. My hand was fine.

"I think I'll drive you to school today," she said thoughtfully. Her hand hovering over my own. "Your hands are burning hot." I nodded with a frown. I could feel the heat, but not burning and it wasn't painful.

I got through the morning in silence, wrapping a red shawl around my face, where the scar was. I got in the car with my mother and we took down, speeding down the lane. We got the in record time, and mum would have time to get to work in good time. Of course, that meant I was extremely early.

Half an hour – yes, half an hour – before school started, Toshiro and Rangiku stalked in. They sat in the seats beside mine and tossed the history books onto the table. Toshiro looked like he had only seen a few winks of sleep.

"Guys," I started hesitatingly.

"What?" Toshiro snapped at me. I winced slightly.

"I've had this dream," I told them and told them everything that had happened with the dreams and the... accident this morning.

"That's troubling," Toshiro sat after a while. I gaped at him. That's troubling, he says. TROUBLING! I'll give him fucking troubling! Nay, that wouldn't do. I took a deep, calming breath and instead I said.

"What'd you mean?"

"It means that you're an entirely different box of chocolate," Rangiku replied instead. _Chocolate? _I looked at her strangely, where did she get the chocolate motto. Not that it was or wasn't wrong.

"Matsumoto," Toshiro growled quietly. "It means you have a zanpakutō. A zanpakutō spirit is a part of your soul that manifest as a weapon. Most commonly a sword."

"Yada, yada," I dismissed him, I already knew all of this of course, so I wasn't paying to much attention to it. "But what does it mean?"

"I was getting to that before you interrupted," Toshiro snapped at me. I laughed nervously. "It means you're a shinigami somehow."

Just then the bell called for the first time and even more people came streaming in. I took it up and unlocked it and started to browse through internet. Jane walked past me, she greeted me and accidentally pumped into me. My phone tumbled to the ground and she picked it up. Jane glanced at it and smiled at the front picture.

"When are you going to stop watching Bleach?" She asked with a short laugh.

"Bleach?" Rangiku questioned.

"Yeah, it's a show she follows. She has a crush on this guy called Gay Tosh? No, Hits Shi? What was it, again Pax?" I didn't answer and plucked out my phone from her grip, hoping with all my life, she would just leave it to rest. No such luck. "Common, Pax, what was it? Don't be shy. I know you love t say that sentence juban something hits something." I sighed, when I heard Rangiku trying to encourage me I knew I had no choice but to say it.

"It's Juban tai taicho Hitsugaya Toshiro."

"Yeah, that's it," Jane didn't see the shocked faces of Toshiro and Rangiku. I closed my eyes and sighed again. "Anyway, it's in this place called Soul Society or something. It's Japanese, I think so you lot should watch it with her sometime."

"Yeah," Toshiro agreed readily, "we should... Blake."

I didn't say anything all through the lesson, sitting silently and watching the screen, absent minded playing Mojhang Titans on it. I so did not look forward until lesson ended. I was in so much trouble with Toshiro and Matsumoto. I sighed and kept myself from banging my head into the desk and potentially ruining the computer. It was the first time I dreaded to leave the sound off the bell and wished it would never come at all.


End file.
